“It occupies the core of our being and extends through our fingers to the limits of the universe. Within that whirling gyre all manner of madnesses exist; ghosts and spirits and dream visitations, and everything else that we, in our anguish, will into existence.

“These are precious gifts that are as valid and as real as we need them to be. They are the spirit guides that lead us out of the darkness.”

In September, Cave suffered another loss when his bandmate 58-year-old pianist and keyboardist Conway Savage died from a brain tumour.

His 2016 album Skeleton Tree was touched by the effects his son’s death had on him, as did the documentary film One More Time with Feeling, which documented the recording of the sixteenth studio album.

Nicole Precel is a video journalist and reporter at The Age. She is also a documentary maker.